After decades of suspicion, police in San Jose have confirmed that the killer of a high school teacher in San Jose was a student who was seen with a knife that had the words “Teacher Dear” written on its side.

On June 16, 1978, one day after Branham High School recessed for summer, a student found Diane Peterson lying on the floor of the hallway near her classroom with a single stab wound to her chest, according to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.

Peterson was said to be one of several teachers on campus cleaning out their classrooms for the summer break when she was killed, according to the news release.

For years, authorities had considered Harry “Nicky” Nickerson, at the time a 16-year-old student at the school, as a person of interest in the case, Santa Clara County pros

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